New-wave deal for oceans of energy

Hobart Mercury
Wednesday 7/5/2008 Page: 13

A BIO-POWER company has secured a deal with Hydro Tasmania to harness the energy of the ocean to generate enough electricity to supply about 500 homes on King Island and Flinders Island. The islands rely on diesel burning generators and wind turbines for their power but by 2010 residents should be able to tap into electricity generated by the perpetual motion of ocean waves and tidal currents.

Hydro Tasmania has signed a memorandum of understanding with Sydney-based company BioPower Systems to do trials of its Biowave technology on King Island and its Biostream tidal-current system on Flinders Island. The aim is to generate 250kW of electricity for both islands by next year. "The coasts at King and Flinders islands are awash with clean power, but it is contained in the waves and tidal current," BioPower Systems chief executive officer Tin Finnigan said yesterday.

Dr Finnigan said the ocean power could be provided at the same cost as the islands' existing power supplies. King Island mayor Charles Arnold said lie hoped that eventually ocean power could be supplied at a cheaper rate than the 22.5c per kilowatt residents now paid. Diesel was selling for $2 a litre on King Island yesterday and the generators burn millions of litres each year.

Cr Arnold said the ocean power project was part of the island's push to reduce reliance on diesel generators from 50 per cent to just 10 per cent. Half the cost of the pilot programs is being met by a $5 million Renewable Energy Development Initiative grant from the Federal Government. The balance will be funded by the company.

Engineers at Tasmania's Australian Maritime College have worked with BioPower to test the technology. The wave power system and the tidal power system are designed to move and respond in a similar way to ocean plants and fish, while extracting power.